//------------------------------//
// Chapter 4: Thaw 
// Story: Fallout Equestria: Heartless 
// by dmgd_mind 
//------------------------------//


Chapter 4: Thaw

I was standing on a balcony overlooking a massive open area filled with all kinds of Unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. Bright banners and lush trees surrounded the area, filling my eyes with more color than I had ever seen before in my life.
The air filled with applause as a dark blue alicorn with a flowing starry mane stepped to the railing encircling the balcony. She had a crescent moon marked on her flank. When my gaze fell on her I felt a sense of awe, reverence, respect, and an overwhelming desire to protect her.
“My wonderful citizens!” she began, her voice projecting over the crowd, “I have gathered you here to share some wonderful news, our scientists in the Ministry of Wartime Technology have created a marvelous new type of armor for the brave soldiers of Equestria.”
The alicorn’s speech faded into the background as something buzzed in my ear. “Keep your eyes sharp Night Breeze, something’s going down.”
“You sure?” I responded quietly into the air.
“You know as well as I that when Feet-first gets a gut feeling something is going to happen. Stay sharp.” The voice returned.
I panned my gaze over the crowd, searching for any sign of threats. All I could see were the smiling faces of the gathered ponies. A sense of foreboding began to grow at the base of my neck as the alicorn’s speech continued. Time dragged on until finally the speech ended with a roar of cheering and stomping from the gathered crowd. She turned to leave and I followed her through an open arch and into a long, well-lit hall.
“How do you think I did Lieutenant?” the alicorn asked, her voice now drastically different from the one she had used during her speech. “Was it too much?”
“Not at all princess, the ponies love you. It was very inspiring.” I answered. The ominous feeling hadn’t gone away. I kept my ears perked and my eyes peeled. “I think you are doing a great job in your sister’s place.” I winced slightly, hoping I had not stirred some painful memories for the alicorn. I relaxed a bit as she smiled in thanks for my compliment.
“Night Breeze! Get Luna to the panic room now! Feet-first just found a pair of dead guards at the southern doorway!” the voice in my ear shouted, full of worry.
“Roger sir,” I quickly responded before turning back to Luna. “Princess, there’s an intruder somewhere in the castle. I need you to follow me to your panic room.”
“Alright lieutenant, lead on.” She responded calmly.
“Night Breeze, Tree-fall and Autumn Leaf are going to meet you at the entrance to the main hall.” The voice instructed.
“Affirmative,” I answered. “Princess, Tree-fall and Autumn Leaf will be meeting us soon.” She nodded and continued to follow at my side. A minute later I saw the two ponies waiting for us. I nodded towards them as they fell in with the princess and I. “Keep your eyes open you two, we don’t have much farther to go” I ordered.
“Got it sir,” they quipped in unison.
We rounded a corner and began moving down another hall filled with ornamental decorations and tapestries. Out of the corner of my eye I saw the air in front of one of the tapestries shimmer. Tree-fall had also seen it, shouting a warning, but it was too late. Without pausing to think I threw myself in front of the alicorn, grunting as a trio of impacts punched into my side. From where I landed I saw blood splatter of the tapestry as a hail of gunfire from Tree-fall and Autumn Leaf shot the zebra assassin to pieces.
I rolled over on my back and coughed up something wet and coppery. As the world began to fade around me I saw the princess’s head come in to view. Her muzzle brushed against mine as she gently placed her horn on my forehead. Thank you Night Breeze, her voice appeared to come from directly inside my head. I will never be able to express just how much your sacrifice means to me, but know that you have my eternal gratitude. She smiled sadly as she continued. Close your eyes and find peace. You have certainly earned it. Her voice followed me as my world faded into an embracing blackness.



I woke with a start, my strange dream already starting to fade from memory. I took a hoof-full of deep breathes, at some point in the dream I had stopped breathing. I tried to recall the dream but the only thing I could remember was dying.
As my senses returned I noticed something warm and soft curled against my chest. Canter was sleeping peacefully in my forelegs. At some point during the night I had given in to the exhaustion of being awake for over 48 hours and crawled into bed with her. I gently ran a hoof through her mane and smiled. Even covered in grime she was beautiful.
I stayed with her for a bit longer before softly getting out of the bed and heading down to the kitchen. I decided I would fix her a big breakfast. I crept downstairs and began grabbing various ingredients from their places around the kitchen. Dehydrated carrots and potatoes went into a pot of boiling water with a sprinkling of bay leaves. I grabbed a box of freeze-dried strawberries from the freezer and set them out to thaw.
I had just finished preparing the food when I heard a loud crash from upstairs. In seconds I was at Canter’s side. She was lying on the floor next to the bed, and was biting her lip as her eyes teared up.
“Are you all right? What happened?” I asked, my voice full of concern.
She sniffed and looked up at me “I was getting out of bed and forgot about my leg.” She motioned with the stump of her left foreleg.
“Why were you getting up? You could have just called me.” I asked, still worried, as I helped her to her hooves.
She looked away from me and didn’t say anything for a minute. I was about to ask her what was wrong when she quietly answered. “I wanted to take a bath.
“Why?” I asked, immediately regretting it as I realized the reason.
“I feel...I feel dirty” A tear hit the floor beneath her and I saw she was softly crying. I was an idiot.
“L-let me help to the bathroom,” I stammered, trying to think of something to say to apologize. I couldn’t think of anything so I just said “I’m sorry.”
She nodded, seeming to accept my apology as I led her across the hall to the house’s one working bathroom. I helped her clamber over the lip of the bathtub then turned to the room’s medicine cabinet, grabbing a bottle of pills and opening it with a quick twist of my head. I poured a few out on my hoof and handed them to her, “here’s some Rad-x, the water isn’t purified so you’ll need them. I’ll leave the bottle next to the bathtub in case you need more. There’s a towel next to the sink. I’m going to go back downstairs and finish making breakfast, call me if you need anything, alright?”
She nodded, took the pills off my hoof, and swallowed them. As I turned to leave I saw her reach to turn on the bath with her stump, before cringing and turning it on with the other hoof. I bit my lip and shut the door behind me, reminded once again of what I was.



“Night?” I heard Canter call from upstairs.
“I’ll be right there!” I responded as I finished setting the kitchen’s small table. I trotted up to the bathroom and knocked on the door. “Is it okay to come in?” I asked.
“Yes,” she responded after a second. I pushed open the door and stared at the mare before me. I could not help it, she was beautiful. Her coat seemed to glow in the dim room, and for the first time I noticed her cutey mark, a Snowdrop flower. She slowly limped over to me, struggling to stay balanced without her foreleg. She reached me and leaned into my side, steadying herself. “I think I need your help to get downstairs.”
“Just lean into me and it shouldn’t be too difficult,” I responded with a smile. I had smiled more in the last few days than I ever had before. We slowly walked towards the stairs and made our way down to the kitchen. Thanks to my proximity I noticed she smelled faintly sweet, like honey. I helped her over to the table and pulled out a chair for her. I felt a little pang of disappointment as she left my side. I took my seat opposite her and pushed the bowl of strawberries to her. “Go ahead and take whatever you want. Just don’t eat too much or you’ll get sick.”
She smiled sweetly and nodded, scooping up one of the strawberries with her tongue and biting down on the fruit. A bit of red juice dribbled out the corner of her mouth. She swallowed, then grinned “these almost taste fresh!”
“I’m glad you like them,” I quipped, smiling as she dug in to her food. I watched her as I slowly ate my meal.  As I stared at the beautiful mare the image a dark blue alicorn flashed briefly into my view, gone as fast as it came. I frowned, not sure if I had seen anything at all, and then shrugged.
I thought about asking Canter about her past, but I realized I didn’t want to have her dredge up what seemed to be only painful memories. We had each other and for now that was enough. I was happy for the first time in my life.
More importantly I had a purpose for the first time in my life.